Adam Yates finishes Barcelona Marathon in under three hours

Adam Yates is keeping his fitness up in the off-season by running the Barcelona Marathon over the weekend, and he didn't take it easy either. 

The Ineos Grenadiers rider managed to break the highly coveted three-hour barrier at the event, sharing images of his run and the timings on his watch to social media. The official results concluded that Yates finished in 2:58:44, placing him 584th in a field of thousands of people. 

The 29-year-old claims his preparation for the marathon wasn't ideal either, telling his Instagram followers: "I think I’ll stick to bike riding. Couple of weeks on the beach not the most ideal prep but I’m happy with 2:58:44 here at Barcelona Marathon."

However, the official timings actually had Yates finishing the marathon in a slower pace than what he shared with his social media followers. Included on the Instagram post is a photo of Yates' watch, displaying his total time and average time per kilometre.

The Briton's watch shows that he finished the marathon in 2:58:08 over 42.65km, giving him an average pace of four minutes 11 seconds per kilometre. Considering that a marathon is also 42.195km, Yates seemingly finished at a quicker pace than the official timings suggest. 

Yates then proceeded to joke in the post that he won't be able to walk for the next week, with one image depicting him being given a piggyback through the streets of the Catalan city. 

The 2016 Tour de France young rider classification winner is now looking to build on his 2021 season, which heralded a win at the Volta a Catalunya and a ninth-place finish in the Olympic road race. 

Having finished third at Il Lombardia a month ago, Yates' marathon shows that he isn't taking too much time off to relax - despite what his Instagram message says. And despite tackling the course, he didn't seem too affected come the end of the race while posing for photos.